Forum home Pregnancy Labour & birth

My Birth story not sure if its traumatic

Need to get this of my chest and thought this would be the best place to do it.

After a tramatic birth first time round with my son (conceled pregnancy and nearly 3 days in labour without knowing what was happening) I was hoping the second time round would be easier as I would have time to prepare for it and i thought it couldn't get any worse than what i went through the first time....

I suffered with spd during my pregnancy and could hardly move. So I saw a diffrent midwife on my due date, as the one i had seen through out my pregnancy was on her leave. She refered me to see a consultant the next day as i was in so much pain and discomfort and couldn't walk very much. So the next day i went to see the consultant who said he wanted me to be induced and that i should come to the hospital the next day at 8:30am. So I went to the hospital the next day we got there at 8:15 and were told to wait in a room downstairs and then at 9:30 a nurse came and told me they were taking me up to the ward. By this time my mum had driven 2 hours to come and be with me and i had my partner as well. I was put in a private room on my own and my mum and partner sat with me for a bit then a midwife came in and said that my mum had to go as only my partner was allowed in the room with me unless it was the offical visiting hour so my mum had to sit in the waiting room downstairs on her own. Then she said that she wasn't sure when they were going to insert the tablets to start my labour off as i was late up to the ward.... Which wasn't my fault as we were left in the room on downstairs for ages. She put the tablet in and monitored the babys heart beat and told me i could go and see my mum downstairs for a while and if i had any pains to come back and see her.... So i spent a while sat down in the waiting room with my mum and then it was the visiting hours so she could come back up with me.

Nothing seemed to be happening with the first tablet and after everyone had gone home (mum and partner) I started getting coming and going pains in my stomach. The midwife came back and said she couldn't give me another one of the induction tablets because i was having pains in my stomach. So I spent all of thursday night awake the only relief i could get from the pain was sitting in the bath.

I spent all day friday in pain but no-one seemed to do anything about it. Finally when the nightstaff came on duty friday evening they decided to take me down to the delivery suite. After waiting in the delivery suite for about 3 hours i was checked over and was told i was not dilated enough to do anything and that they were too busy to do anything that night and just gave me a pain killer and sent me back up to the ward. My partner had to leave me as it was 9pm at night and they wouldn't let him stay anymore. By this time i was getting hysterical and was crying my eyes out. The midwife on duty that night said that they would take me down to the delivery suite in the morning to give me more of the tablets and hopefully deliver the baby as i was so upset and stressed. So the painkiller they gave me finally kicked in and I managed to get some sleep.

Saturday Morning at 10am i was taken down to the delivery ward so I text my partner as when i was upstairs on the ward He wasn't allowed to come in until 1pm but here he was allowed in straight away. So they were monitoring the baby and gave me another of the tablets and the midwife who was looking after me couldn't understand why the ward upstairs hadn't given me more tablets on the thursday.

So she inserted the first tablet to get induce labour and still nothing happened so 6 hours later of sitting in the same room she inserted another one. This time I started getting proper contractions, Now I am a wimp and have a really low pain threshold. So these were really hurting me and she gave me some paracetmol and i also had to be put on a drip as i was dehydrated. Then about 11pm as she was monitoring the babys heartbeat my waters broke and she asked if i wanted some pethidine and some gas and air.... I said yes anything to reduce the pain a little bit. So I had to be moved rooms to a bigger room, She gave me the gas and air and then injected the pethidine... It didn't really take the pain away but i was a little bit out there with the fairies and went quite giddy and light headed. I told my partner to try and have a little kip in the reclining chair as he was really tired (but he couldn't sleep as apparently i sounded like darth vader sucking on the gas and air) The midwife came in to check on me and asked my partner to get the babys clothes out as she could see the head. By this time i was screaming for an epidural as i couldn't move my leg and because I couldn't move my leg it was blocking the babys way out. Now I was told it was too late to give me one and one of the specialist who had come in even shouted at me that he wasn't going to help me because I wasn't helping myself and that the baby was going to die if i didn't move my leg as her heart beat had dropped because she couldn't get out.

My partner left the room because he was too upset at what was going on and ended up pacing the hallway. Eventually I managed to move my leg with a little help from one of the midwifes, Within 2 pushes after i had managed to move my leg My beautiful little girl was born and my partner had come back in He held my little girl after they had cleaned her up as I had a second degree tear and needed stiches. I then had a bath and my partner looked after my little girl. After I got back from the bath about 5 mins later I was told i was being taken up to the ward. Once we got to the ward door my partner had to go home and wasn't even allowed in to settle me down. This was at 5am and he had to walk about 4 miles home.

I was kept in just till the monday because of her heartbeat dropping during the birth and i couldn't wait to get home.

Replies

  • Thank you for sharing your story, this could not have been easy for you. You have had a really tough time. I'm sorry xx

    Sending you a great big ((hug)) and Congratulations on the birth of your daughter,

    You're very brave (and I loved the Darth Vader comment!)... after all of that you have kept your SOH x

    xx
  • I think you were treated terribly by the consultant - why didn't they just move your leg for you if needed to be moved. They were quick enough to sling my legs into stirrups when they were needed so there was no reason for them not to move your leg if it was so important it be moved. So I hope you don't feel in anyway responsible for what happened.

    It is quite common for babies heartrates to drop more than normal when you have been induced and it is one of the reasons why they have to monitor the babys heartrate continously. I really do doubt that it was because of your leg that your baby's heartrate was dropping or they would have moved it a lot sooner - it was more likely he made that comment because your leg was in his way.

    I am sorry you had such a rough time.
  • In your situation, I'd put in a formal complaint and chase it up in writing on a weekly basis until I had either an apology or, at the very least, an explanation.
    I didn't make a complaint when a duty midwife let me haemorrage for 20 hours despite me telling her I was concerned about my blood loss - I still regret it now and think I always will.
    Anyway, I too loved the Darth Vader comment and am glad that you and your little girl are now safe and well.
    Take care Px
Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions